Pages

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Thru the Generations: A Genealogy Stop in Massachusetts

I have vowed that I'm not getting into genealogy! We know people who are devoted students of their family history, and it is a great hobby for travelers. Gives you a reason to study an area if you have ancestors from there. But, we already have too many past times. I am indebted to Connie Bradish who took it upon herself to follow some of my family history and verified that these are my ancestors. It is kind of fun to know this stuff!

When I knew we were going to be in the Boston area, it struck a chord. A few months ago, I ran across this postcard at my Mom's house. My Great-Grandmother's name was Mae Manning, and this is apparently her ancestral home. I don't think she ever lived there, she was from Michigan. But it was definitely her ancestors who built it in 1696! I found Billerica on the map, just northwest of Boston. Right where we were already planning to go to visit Jim's nephew, Stephen.

We found an Elk's lodge nearby where we could park. I had to go.

I understood that the Tea Tavern was no longer there, but we were delighted to find a pub in its place, John Ryan's Pub, so we could sit and have a beer and a snack. And, the delightful manager - a young man from Nepal! used his key to let us into the restored residence ... the "Manse" part.

For the other end of the generational spectrum, we were able to make arrangements to visit with Jim's nephew Stephen and his wonderful wife, Sarah. Believe it or not, these are the real geeks in the Guld family. We just caught them home, and we were so glad. They just returned from attending cyber security conferences out in Las Vegas. Devcon and Blackhat. There was some fun conversations around this dinner table! Fun for geeks anyway!

Inspiration

"There’s a myth that time is money. In fact, time is more precious than money. It’s a nonrenewable resource. Once you’ve spent it, and if you’ve spent it badly, it’s gone forever."— Neil Fiore: Author, speaker, and trainer on managing business